Living in Grand Cayman

A few posts ago a discussed the USS Kittiwake … a former US warship that will be sunk off Seven Mile beach to be an artificial reef for diving.  Awesome!

Well, this ship arrived in Cayman two days ago and will be sunk most likely (no official date yet) in the next week or so.  Of course, I am off island for this event 🙁

So, if you are on island anytime between now and the next few days, check out www.kittiwakecayman.com and the local newspapers  so that you don’t miss the sinking. If you are flying in to Cayman, try to sit on the left side of the plane (usually seat A) and you should be able to get a good look on the final approach.

If you are able to see this and take pictures, PLEASE send some to me (I’m looking at you David Wolfe …) or the link to your blog/Website.

Here is what she looks live just off the coast of Grand Cayman

Photo: Norma Connolly, Caymanian Compass 29/12/2010

No,  I am not in Paris this week. However, I did see a crazy amount of … Christmas lights.

In previous years, I featured a place where there were many Christmas lights (see right hand side column – click on December 2008 and 2009).  Well, this year I found a place with even more lights.  The “other” place is however set out on a larger parcel of land.  This one is packed into 1/2 the space and could probably be spotted from an airplane at 35000ft ; I kid you not.

Here are some pics to demonstrate. The first one is the view from the street as you drive by.

Now walking around inside this carnival of lights.

And finally a video to let you grasp the full size of this place.

If you are visiting Cayman and want to see this place, it is located on South Church Street, right in front of the Sunset House.  If you are staying on Seven Mile Beach ->  Just drive towards town, pass town/harbor front and keep going +-1/2 mile … I think the expression “you cant miss it” is quite applicable here 🙂

Even with all those lights, its been somewhat cold here!  By Cayman standards anyway.

Not complaining of course, but it did hit a low that i have not seen in my time in Cayman : 19 degrees. Just enough to make me drive to work in the morning with the windows rolled up.  No heat turned on of course.

I was thrilled when driving towards town recently. I could see that this yacht was very close to shore and that I could get a good picture of it.

The Tatoosh is in Grand Cayman. This super-yacht is the 26th largest in the world at 301-ft long.  She is owned by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen (he co-founded with Bill Gates)  Amazingly, this is the smaller of his two boats.

Notice the helicopter on the desk ; it gives you a better idea of the size.   Apparently there is a staff of 35 and it has 2 x 4000hp diesel engines. According to what I read, Allen paid +-100M$US for it in 2001.  The original owner was Craig McGaw, the US mobile phone pioneer.

Right where I took the pictures of the boat, there is a large condo complex.  The place is only 4-5 years old if I am not mistaken.   It is quite exposed to the ocean and got a bit of a beating during Dean in 2007. Anyway, from what I can see, the salt has been murder for the air conditioning units.  Ouch!  Not sure what the exact story is, but I am guessing that the original ones are the rusted ones and that the newer ones were recently installed to replace some rusted ones which were in disrepair.

Finally, some trivia. If you know the answer, post to the comments section and ill reply if you are correct.  These pictures were taken in Manhattan on my recent trip to NY.   If you dont follow the financial markets or the news, this will be very difficult.

1) What significant financial event of 2008/2009 originated from this 3rd avenue building? More specifically on the 17th floor.

2) Which prominent financial firm once owned this building (the one with the octagonal shape) on Madison avenue? At the time it was one of the only large NY financial firms not to be based in lower Manhattan near Wall St.

For the last two years or so, a new and very large building have been taking shape on one of the last large vacant lots in the business district of George Town.

Here is what the land looked like before the project started (picture taken sometime in 2007)

Here is what it looks like today. Once completed sometime in 2011, this will be the largest building in the Cayman Islands with +-150,000 sq.ft of office space. It will serve as the main  government building.

Once completed, the new government building will consolidate many of the ministries/departments into this single building on Elgin Ave.  Right now, many of  government agencies are scattered around town.

The cool thing I find about this building is that it will be LEED certified, which means it will meet certain environmental benchmarks.  For one, it will use geothermal technology for the air conditioning system. I saw them doing the holes in the ground and they seemed to go very deep!  Also, I believe that on the roof there is a rain catchment system which will then serve for the toilets and other such uses.

Of course, this building is built to resist the nastiest hurricanes.  The walls are made of poured concrete and the windows are all hurricane resistant windows.  Also, when they started to build it, they put a massive amount of fill so to make the building significantly higher than road level (see the 3rd picture, you can see the stairs/slope)  During hurricane Ivan in 2004, this area of town had lots of water (so I am told …) and this building is probably 10ft above street level by my estimates.

In any case, it wont be put to use this year for hurricanes.  Season ends in 2-weeks and nothing on the radar.  Some disturbance near Columbia, but not forecasted to come to Cayman.  Enjoy the long week-end everyone (everyone in Cayman that is) 🙂

Diving and most aquatic activities were pretty much out of the question on the western part of the island this week-end.  The western part is essentially George Town and Seven Mile beach. I saw today some of the largest waves I have ever seen here.  In any case, they are the biggest since the close call of Hurricane Dean that I have seen.

I am just guessing, but probably the passing a few hundred miles away of Hurricane Tomas may have something to do with it.

Here is the wave action at Eden rock.  Those stairs are where you go into the water to snorkel.  None of that happening right now.  The water is all milky anyway.

Here is the main commercial area in George Town, right in front of the stores and restaurants.  These waves were putting water in the street with and made quite a “thud” on impact.

The port dock where all the containers are usually located got quite a beating also.  It was quite a show.

Lastly, the chicken! 🙂  A subject I like to discuss once in a while.  I still find it funny that they roam freely all over the place.  They don’t seem to bother anyone and just “do their thing” of roaming around town.  I had always noticed upon arriving to work in the early morning that the roosters made quite a symphony.   Basically, when I get to the 3rd floor of where I work ( I use an outside staircase), I can always hear what seems like hundreds of roosters from near and afar. It always impressed me … not sure why though.  Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, here they are: the morning George Town chicken symphony. Listen carefully, there are a significant number of them that you can hear on the video.  And consider this, what other blog would ever present to you such a random thing.  LOL